Manchester United visit Bournemouth in a league game for only the second time in their history on Sunday. And while it comes just eight months on from their first trip to the Vitality Stadium, the two fixtures can barely have been played against such polarised backdrops.
For supporters there are obvious differences between a cold, dull, windy December visit to the coast and a sunny August trip to the sultry seaside, but the prospects of their team are much improved from the last time they were up against Eddie Howe’s side.
Jose Mourinho heads into his opening Premier League game as Manchester United boss with his squad buoyed by the arrivals of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly – with the promise of the suspended Paul Pogba to come against Southampton next week.
Four days before their last trip to the seaside, United had suffered a season-defining 3-2 defeat to Wolfsburg in Germany which ended their Champions League involvement and instigated the first serious question marks about Louis van Gaal’s future with the club. His decision to leave a heavily-injured Chris Smalling on the pitch, as a striker, in the final moments at the Volkswagen Arena had done little to help him either.
The Dutchman’s main positive from a selection point of view ahead of the Bournemouth game was that his decisions were made for him in a defensive sense at the very least. Shorn of Smalling, Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo, Van Gaal basically chose the only players available to him in the back line.
Having chosen not to bolster his ranks with a centre-back the previous summer, he quickly found the Old Trafford cupboards empty and had to start the fixture at Dean Court with a defence of Guillermo Varela, Paddy McNair, Daley Blind and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson. For the two full-backs it was a first ever league start, while McNair was making what turned out to be his final league start for United. It was hardly the most cohesive of units.
The paucity of options for Van Gaal weren’t restricted to defence though. Marouane Fellaini was forced to make only his second start in the midfield all season having previously been out of favour, and, when he was replaced 15 minutes from time with United trailing 2-1, it was Nick Powell to whom the former Barcelona boss turned for attacking inspiration in the opposition half. After a second successive impact-free performance, Powell never played for the club again.
The Dutchman’s state of panic was perhaps best summed up in injury time as McNair limped off the field. Instead of throwing on his last remaining forward, Ashley Young, to cause extra havoc in the final third, on came Phil Jones in a like-for-like switch. The side-to-side football was one thing, but this was something completely off the scale.
Two days after that landmark Bournemouth victory, Leicester City beat champions Chelsea 2-1 and Van Gaal’s week from hell was about to become a six-month nightmare. Within days the Blues had sacked Mourinho and the inevitable link was quickly made between the Portuguese and Old Trafford.
Of course, it took some time to happen, but when the deed was done in May the club quickly set about ensuring there is no repeat of last season ever again. Bailly was the addition in defence that Van Gaal refused to make, Mkhitaryan is the flair the Dutchman constantly snubbed, Ibrahimovic the kind of personality he simply wouldn’t have known what to do with and Pogba the sort of talent he may well have put in the file marked ‘Di Maria’.
With Mourinho, and with the kind of individuals he has attracted to the club this summer, United are a very different proposition. They could well lose to Bournemouth on Sunday, as football has shown time and again that over 90 minutes very little is impossible. But the highly predictable slide into obscurity which was beginning to kick in last time United were on the south coast is now very much a thing of the past.
Last time they had no power, no leadership, no character, no fight, and no hope. Now they have all of it in spades. Bournemouth welcome United to town for a second league meeting on Sunday, but this is the first time their fans with get to see a real Manchester United side in action.
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